Echo

Nozdormu saw Aiden standing before the Gate of Time, a strange smile on his face, yet he didn't step through. With only a dozen or so seconds remaining, he anxiously urged, "Hurry and go in, or it will truly be too late!"

"You won't completely disappear," Aiden said.

Nozdormu and Ysera immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

This was the Aiden they knew. He wasn't an arbitrary or reckless person. If he could save the world, he would undoubtedly face any difficulty and never retreat!

"Azeroth will thank you!"

Aiden pretended to step inside, finally putting Nozdormu at ease. But the next moment, Aiden suddenly waved the Staff of Time, and a golden light shone into the Gate of Time.

"You!" Nozdormu's expression drastically changed. He sensed that the energy of the Gate of Time he had created, leading to the War of the Ancients, was being greatly disrupted, and the destroyer was none other than Aiden!

The Bronze Dragon Aspect was both shocked and furious. He couldn't understand why Aiden would do this—was he going to watch the world be destroyed before his very eyes?

"Stop, stop! I beg you!" Nozdormu pleaded loudly, more panicked than ever. He thought Aiden was merely being careless, not intentionally destroying the portal. At this point, he could only comfort himself with this thought.

"You'll kill all of us, Aiden!" Ysera cried out, her voice trembling.

But the reality was cruel. Aiden wasn't simply "misclicking." Even stronger temporal power flowed from the Staff of Time, and with a stir, the golden portal before him vanished without a trace.

Nozdormu instantly despaired. The world before him turned black and white, and endless fear engulfed him like a tsunami. He was filled with regret, wondering why he had trusted Aiden—surely the other party harbored resentment from his previous targeting. The brief cooperation during the Nexus War and the Battle for Ulduar hadn't extinguished the resentment in Aiden's heart. He must still suspect this was another act orchestrated by the Bronze Dragons, with the Green Dragon Queen added to the mix.

That's why Aiden was acting this way, using such drastic measures to destroy the Gate of Time and all of Azeroth's hope.

It had to be.

Ysera saw that Aiden had no intention of stopping, and she was too shocked to speak.

She was instantly stunned, and countless thoughts flooded her mind—was this Aiden? Or was it the Infinite Dragonflight, or perhaps an Old God in disguise? Just like in the Battle for Ulduar, when they were deceived by Medivh and Aiden?

Only this could explain why the person before them would destroy the portal, because only their enemies would want to see such a thing.

She never imagined that everything would fall apart here at the end.

It's over, it's over, everything is over—just as Nozdormu said, if the real Aiden didn't return to the War of the Ancients, then all of them, even Azeroth itself, would lose their meaning of existence. Once the time point where memories were obscured had passed, they would all vanish in an instant.

Like bubbles bursting in the sunlight, they would disappear without a trace with a "pop."

"I say, have you two come back to your senses? The time has long passed." At this moment, Aiden's slightly teasing voice reached the ears of the two Dragon Aspects.

"Huh?"

Nozdormu snapped back to reality, but before he could react, the only thought in his mind was that he, and everything in Azeroth, would completely change in the next instant, that he would disappear—that he shouldn't even have existed for the past ten thousand years.

And Ysera, Alexstrasza, Malygos, all the dragons, even all living beings—because after Sargeras truly arrived, Azeroth would be completely destroyed, and nothing would be left—perhaps it would be completely corrupted into a world full of demons.

But that would no longer have anything to do with him.

Seeing Nozdormu still looking dull, Aiden raised his voice: "I said, the time point you set for me to travel through has long passed!"

"Huh?" Nozdormu stared at him blankly, expressionless. After a while, he sensed the blowing of the north wind again, the flow of time, and the faint sensation of snowflakes hanging on his scales. It seemed that because of the great shock just now, he couldn't even feel the endless harassment of the Eternal Dragon King anymore.

In front of him, Aiden was winking.

"You see, I didn't go back to the Age of Ancients, and the world didn't end." Aiden looked extremely proud, "See? Your previous reasoning was wrong."

"This, this…" Nozdormu had now completely come back to his senses. He couldn't believe everything before him, and even specifically checked the timeline to confirm that the time point Aiden had to travel through had passed by two minutes.

But the world hadn't been destroyed.

Ysera asked in his place, equally puzzled: "Why is this? Did you know this would happen in advance, right?"

Aiden said: "My understanding of time is a bit deeper than yours."

This wasn't boasting. Aiden was indeed qualified to say this. Whether it was about time or the essence of this world, he understood it more deeply than anyone else in this world.

However, there was no way to explain this from the perspective of a game, so he replied half-truthfully: "First, we must establish a principle: completely discard the concept of the timeline. If you look at time itself from its essence, you will find that the future is in a state of change. What happened in the past will affect the future, but it will never determine the future. And the future will not have a definite result, we need to add the cause in the past."

This conclusion was very different from Nozdormu's own understanding of the essence of time. He struggled, instinctively unwilling to believe it, but what had just happened completely contradicted his previous understanding of time.

Nozdormu didn't interrupt, nor did Ysera. They were waiting for the other party's next words.

Aiden paused, then continued: "For example: just like what happened just now. In your understanding, I appeared in the War of the Ancients, prevented the Infinite Dragonflight's conspiracy to tamper with history, and thwarted the Burning Legion's first invasion. I know that if I step into the Gate of Time, these things will indeed become reality. After I come back, your memories will have relevant information."

"We can understand that." Nozdormu nodded.

This example completely conformed to his understanding of time. He even believed that this was inevitable—but Aiden used practical actions to tell him that this was not inevitable, but only a possibility.

Aiden continued: "If this is the case, then this matter violates the principle I just said. Looking along the timeline, the War of the Ancients ten thousand years ago must have happened first. So my crossing became something that had already happened in the past, to add the reason to the future—that is, a few minutes ago. This is 'the past determines the future'. But this completely does not conform to the conclusion that 'the future is changing'."

"And from our current point in time, a few minutes ago, I obviously hadn't crossed over yet. I've only been in this world for a few years, and there was no shadow of me ten thousand years ago. But you saw through the timeline or special memories that I had appeared in the War of the Ancients. But I didn't go back to the past at that time at all. This becomes 'the future changes the past', another absurd paradox."

Aiden saw that the two Dragon Aspects both looked entangled, and this look was exactly the same as when he had seen the network of timelines in the Caverns of Time before.

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The past determines the future, and the future changes the past. This sounds like a paradox, but the timeline itself accommodates such paradoxes.

In Aiden's view, this was a paradox, but in Nozdormu and Ysera's view, this was the truth, the truth.

It's just that this "truth" had just encountered a severe challenge.

"Are you saying that those things we saw before... were all wrong?" Nozdormu simply couldn't accept it—because the network of timelines was defined by the Titans. As creators, how could the Titans be wrong?

"No, it is right, but it only has a scope of application. Beyond this scope, the principle I just said shall prevail."

Aiden said: "All truths and laws have their own scope of application, and absolute truth does not exist."

This was what he wanted to say.

Seeing that the two Dragon Aspects still looked ignorant, he could only say: "Let's put it this way, if I really went into the portal, you and the others would indeed gain memories about my participation in the War of the Ancients. That's right. And if I don't cross over, you've seen the consequences. Apart from the two of you, no one thinks I joined the War of the Ancients. Even if the Infinite Dragonflight really went to tamper with history, it didn't affect anything."

"In fact, that 'if I don't go, the world would have been destroyed ten thousand years ago, and then after that time point, Azeroth will no longer exist' is not a fact, but—" Aiden stomped his foot and pointed underground, "This guy is lying to you."

"N'Zoth? It's influencing our memories?" Ysera exclaimed.

She and Nozdormu changed color at the same time, but they could accept this statement all at once. Because the "setting" Aiden had proposed before was really challenging their inherent cognition. If it was the Old Gods playing tricks, then everything would be normal.

They hadn't made a mistake, but because of N'Zoth's influence, they had misjudged the consequences of Aiden not crossing over.

Thinking about it this way, they immediately understood.

As for whether it was really N'Zoth playing tricks, was that important?

Anyway, the Old Gods were so evil and so good at controlling people's minds, it wouldn't be wrong to say it was him.

However, Aiden never expected—that he would actually hit the nail on the head—it was indeed N'Zoth who influenced Nozdormu and Ysera's memories, making them think that if Aiden didn't cross back to the Age of Ancients, the world would be destroyed in an instant.

In the deep sea, N'Zoth, who had been closely observing all of this, was shocked and angry when he saw that Aiden had seen through everything.

"No, no! How could my plan fail!"

"How did he see through it! ?"

"This is impossible! Impossible!"

N'Zoth realized for the first time that his carefully prepared plan had completely failed!